Newman NASCAR win raises drivers' suspicions

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Drivers in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series garage area were suspicious of Ryan Newman's ability to stretch his fuel mileage before the start of Sunday's Banquet 400.

Suspicion turned closer to an indictment after he won at the Kansas Speedway.

Newman again had the best of NASCAR's alphabet soup - mph and mpg - in winning his eighth race of the season. He did it racing the final 79 laps - more than 10 laps further than most - without stopping for gas.

Although Newman said he was "worried" his Alltel Dodge would make it to the finish, he had enough gas to run a cool-down lap and do a burnout along the main grandstands. From there, he drove his car to Victory Lane.

"You have to burn so much fuel to get that kind of horsepower, and they're not giving up any horsepower."

According to telemetry provided by NBC, Newman had one of the three-fastest speeds of all cars during each of the final five laps.

That dispelled any notion he was trying to coast to a win.

"We got out front there with fuel mileage and the cautions worked out in our favor," Newman said after pocketing $191,000.

Top Finishers

1. (11) Ryan Newman

2. (8) Bill Elliott

3. (16) Jeremy Mayfield

4. (14) Tony Stewart

5. (7) Jeff Gordon,

6. (24) Kevin Harvick.

7. (1) Jimmie Johnson

8. (15) Jamie McMurray

9. (5) Rusty Wallace

10. (19) Ricky Rudd

"We do the best we can with what we have to work with. It was as much luck as it was skill.

"Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn't."

Newman and Mayfield were mired in the middle of the pact after stopping on the 189th of 267 laps for gasoline during a caution period.

But when the rest of the lead-lap cars stopped for fuel on Lap 202 for another caution, Newman and Mayfield both earned a pass to the front by staying on the track.

Newman passed Mayfield for the lead with 28 laps to go, and from there he easily held off the Evernham Motorsports tandem of Bill Elliott and Mayfield for the win.

Although most teams said 65 or 66 laps was as far as they could stretch a tank of gas around the 1.5-mile speedway, Newman's team gambled on a couple caution periods down the stretch to help them stretch their mileage.

Generally, a car burns half as much gas during a caution period at 55 mph than at race speeds reaching 170 mph.

There were three cautions lasting four laps each after Newman made his final stop.

Elliott, who led a race-best 115 laps, settled for second after dropping back to 10th for his final stop. He was so frustrated by what happened, he left the speedway without comment.

Rusty Wallace, who is Newman's teammate at Penske South, also wasn't happy another race was settled by fuel mileage.

"Then we had a bunch of that stupid, stay out, don't pit, fuel mileage crap happen again," he said.